Brief Article Overview
The article “Top ten reasons why large companies fail to keep their best talent” by Jackson Eric sets out to highlight the reasons why major companies find it hard retaining staff. The article begins by stating that while large organizations have vast resources that they can use to retain their best staff, they still fail to keep their most talented staff from leaving.
Loss of talented staff negatively affects the organization’s performance and for this reason, it is important to know the reasons why employees leave. Jackson (2011) therefore goes on to provide a list of ten reasons for this failure in staff retention by large companies.
The reasons articulated range from those that are as a result of the company being large to personal reasons by both the managers and the staff. The article concludes by noting that with a scarcity of talent being expected, organizations need to overcome this issues that cause talented staff to leave.
List in order of Priority
- Big Company Bureaucracy
- Who’s the Boss?
- The Missing Vision Thing
- Poor Annual Performance Reviews
- No Discussion around Career Development
- Failing to Find a Project for the Talent that Ignites Their Passion
- Lack of Accountability and/or telling them how to do their Jobs
- Shifting Whims/Strategic Priorities
- Lack of Open-Mindedness
- Top Talent likes other Top Talent
How to know if these things are happening
Being able to know if these things which cause top talent to leave are happening is of great significance. If the activities mentioned below are taking place, then you will know that these things are happening in your company.
The organization has inflexible procedures and demands that a rigid hierarch and chain of command be followed at all times and decision making is entrusted only to the top company employees. In addition to this, the company’s vision and strategy is come up with by the top management and then imposed on the rest of the employees who have no say in the company’s vision.
The company’s managers are overwhelmed with work and therefore do not have any time to engage in conversations with the employees to find out their passions or even provide feedback on their performance reviews. The company lacks clear goals and objectives and it keeps on moving the top talent to work on the latest project without giving them time to complete previous projects they may be interested in.
The organization also lacks any well defined career development plan for its employees and the talented staff cannot see any clearly set out career path for them. Promotions and advances are also given in a haphazard manner and at the discretion of top management.
The company avoids hiring top talent since they demand more competitive payment packages and as a result of this, the company is filled with average employees and a few talented staff who end up feeling frustrated. When hiring managers, the company does not deeply review the competence of the new manager in dealing with high talent. The company also does not providing executive coaching for the new manager and he/she is expected to be adept at working with his staff.
Action Plan to prevent the 10 Things
An action plan is needed to ensure that the reasons for talented employees leaving are mitigated or eliminated altogether. Decision making should be more decentralized with employees being given an opportunity to voice their suggestions. This will demonstrate that the organization values the input of its staff and appreciates them as valued players in the organization. In addition to this, the organization should inform of even consult employees when changes that affect them are about to take place.
While money is a major motivation for employees, they are also concerned about their professional growth (Donaldson-Feilder, et al. 2011). This is in line with Herzberg’s two-factor theory which states that in addition to monetary rewards, work conditions also act as incentives for workers to be more productive. The organization should therefore come up with schedules for career advancement and managers should take on mentoring roles to the employees and encourage growth.
The organization should also carry out regular evaluations of the performance of their employees and the evaluations should be focused on improving the productivity of individual employees. Moss and Sanchez (2004) assert that feedback on the evaluations is therefore crucial since without feedback, employees will not be able to improve on their shortcomings.
Selection of managers should not depend entirely on skill-based analysis. A competency analysis should also be engaged in to ensure that the candidate has solid authoritative personality and prior managerial experience. The managers in the organizations will be encouraged to adopt leadership styles that do not alienate them with the employees.
For example, transformational leadership which looks for “potential motives in followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person of the follower” will be most appropriate (Harris & Nelson 2007, p.356).
Such a leadership style will raise job satisfaction and increase employee performance and productivity. Managers will also be required to take time to foster relationships with the employees. Research by Kellerman (2007) demonstrated that when managers showed concern for their staff, the staff reciprocated by increased productivity.
Measuring Success
There have to be specific and measurable goals and objectives in order to tell the effectiveness of the staff retention action plan. The first measure of success will be in the evident behavioral change in the company staff. There will be reduced rates of turnover and the company will be able to attract more talented staff who will express interest in working for the company due to the favorable work conditions.
An even more important measure of success will be in the increase in organization’s productivity as the talented staff gets even more involved in the affairs of the organization. The company’s quarterly financial statements will attest to significant improvements which may be caused by the innovations by the talented staff. The company will become a market leader in innovation as its key talent come up with novel products for the organization.
Conclusion
In this paper, I have carried out an analyses of the article “Top ten reasons why large companies fail to keep their best talent” by Jackson Eric. From It, I have learnt the major reasons why top talents leave major organization. Remedies to these problems have been proposed so as to help organization’s maintain their talented staff and hence increase their competitiveness.
Some of the major lessons that I have learnt from this case study is that making employees feel valued is of great importance in not only increasing their performance but maintaining them in the organizational workforce.
References
Donaldson-Feilder, E., Lewis, R. & Yarker, J. (2011). Preventing stress in organizations: how to develop positive managers. Boston: John Wiley & Sons.
Kellerman, B. (2007) ‘What Every Leader needs to know About Followers.’ Harvard Business Review 85, (12) 84-91.
Harris, T.E. & Nelson, M. (2007). Applied organizational communication: theory and practice in a global environment. London: Taylor & Francis.
Jackson, E. (2011). Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent. Web.
Moss, S.E. & Sanchez, J.I. (2004). Are your employees avoiding you? Managerial strategies for closing the feedback gap. Academy of Management Executive, 18 (1), 34-54.